


Night Shift

by Do_Whatever_You_Want_Im_Super_Dead



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: A bit of gore, Child Death, it's FNAF guys, just the first game though, mostly around Crying Child, near brush with death for our poor protagonist, some lore from FNAF 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:49:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27654368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Do_Whatever_You_Want_Im_Super_Dead/pseuds/Do_Whatever_You_Want_Im_Super_Dead
Summary: Mike recounts what happened that week at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria - and an event that scarred him for life years before. Poor guy just wanted some extra cash while going to college.It's not his fault that the animatronics are alive.
Kudos: 11





	Night Shift

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, didn't expect to get into the FNAF fandom!
> 
> I blame TikTok cosplayers of William Afton and my own curiosity.
> 
> Anyway, I decided to center this one around the events of the first game, though I decided to add in a tie to an event from FNAF 4, so keep a lookout for that!
> 
> As always, please leave a review and tell me what you think!
> 
> Now, on with the short story! Hope you all enjoy!

I wake up late in the day. I’m used to waking up around noon, but I figured I might as well sleep in until 4 anyway, considering that my shift tonight will run quite late – midnight to six AM shift. It’s this way for the next four nights, too, but eh, it’s what I signed up for. I’m a bit of a night owl anyway, and I figured a nice, quiet job as a security guard at a closed pizzeria would give me plenty of time and quiet to get some homework done and at the same time make some money.

It wasn’t my first choice, of course. I was trying to apply for a security guard night shift at a few other places in town, too, but this was the only place that hired me with my lack of experience. Makes sense, since I’m only in college right now.

The whole thing was strange, really. I saw that they were hiring when I went there with my friends one evening for some pizza and fun. I don’t really like pizza, but I decided to humor my friends, considering they didn’t know what had happened all that time ago. It’s something I don’t like talking about. Anyway, I asked what the job was, and they said that they were looking for a security guard for the night shift there. I asked for an application and immediately got one, much to my surprise. I quickly filled it out and gave it back, not expecting them to call me back about it.

When I got a phone call the next day about it, I was surprised, needless to say. We set up an interview for that afternoon, and I was hired on the spot. I was told that it would be relatively easy: just come and clock in, get settled in the security office, and keep an eye on the animatronics via the cameras from midnight until six five nights a week. The current night guard was on his last week, so I would start the next Monday. I agreed, and we shook hands and they gave me my uniform. I found it a little odd, as it was purple rather than the usual blue you would expect from a security guard’s uniform, but I supposed that it was a pizzeria meant for kids and thus had to be a bit unique.

I don’t like pizza, and I most certainly don’t like animatronics. Mostly because of what happened to a kid at a family diner a few years ago, back in ’83, I think. I was there with my family, sitting by the stage where a bear and a bunny stood and sang in metallic voices as entertainment for the children. I was actually having quite a bit of fun – it was a birthday party for one of my friends, and I was happy to be there. I had even picked out a present for him – a toy Death Star from Star Wars, which had just released its second movie, _The Empire Strikes Back_. He loved the movies and had seen them five times each so far.

Anyway, there was another kid at the party that was kinda closed off from the rest of the group. He didn’t like the animatronics, but that was fine with the rest of us. I didn’t really know him too well, just that his brother LOVED to bully him and scare him all the time, especially if he had his friends to help him out. I started hearing a commotion, and I looked to see what was going on. I saw that they had picked the kid up, and I wondered what was going on. Were they going to do another swirlie? Dunk him in the garbage can?

What happened next haunted me for the rest of my life. The bullies actually carried the kid, who was screaming at them to stop at this point, up to the animatronics, then put him in the bear’s mouth! A couple of employees noticed and yelled at them to take the kid out, but by the time they had rushed over to the stage to get the kid out, the bear’s head had snapped shut, silencing the kid’s cries as blood started slowly dripping down its chin. A few kids screamed and ran for the exit. All I could do was sit there and stare at the scene. These boys, one of them the kid’s older brother, had just killed a kid through their bullying.

Yeah, that ruined pizza and animatronics for me. I didn’t want to step into another pizza place in my life, but here I am now, having eaten at a pizza place with animatronics – two of them a bear and a bunny, though they looked a lot better than the ones at the diner. It had closed down not that long after due to the safety issues with the animatronics and what happened to the kid. I think his brother and his friends went to prison for causing the kid’s death. For some reason, the place didn’t get sued, but I think that was because there were so many of us to say that it wasn’t the diner’s fault that a bunch of kids decided to stuff a kid in the mouth of an animatronic bear just for shits and giggles, only for the bear to kill the kid.

Anyway, I’m thinking of all of this as I get dressed for my day before my shift. I know I’m going to need a lot of coffee, but first I need to get to my late afternoon class. I was always more of a night owl, so I took late afternoon and night classes to get myself through college while also deciding to take on jobs wherever I could.

One of my friends who had invited me to the pizzeria the day I applied for the job comes up to me while I’m heading to class and says, “Hey, Stacie, Mark and I were gonna go to a karaoke bar this Friday after our last class. Do you want to come with? It’ll be lots of fun, better than that pizzeria we went to last weekend. Sorry about that, by the way.”

“Hey, it’s fine. Actually, I have work that night. I gotta work the night shift,” I explain. “So sorry, but I can’t come. Maybe another time.”

He shrugs. “Your loss. Hey, I’ll see you in class tonight, right?”

I smile. “Yeah, see you then.”

My day is mostly uneventful, but I can’t stop thinking about that pizzeria. Everyone who went there actually loved the place, although I can’t help but think that something was off about it. Something in the animatronics seemed to be a bit… alive. I try shaking the thoughts out of my head, reasoning with myself that it’s because I saw one kill a kid completely by accident, that these were much safer and that there was no way that a kid could be killed by one of them again. Plus, there were safety rails and signs around the animatronics so that what happened at the diner would never happen again. Besides, my job was just to sit in an office and watch the animatronics. Nothing more. Plenty of time to do my homework and maybe even do some light reading.

By the time I get home from classes, it’s almost 11 PM. I take a quick shower, then put on my uniform. It’s a little big on me, but I take that as a good thing, taking out a belt and using it to keep my pants from falling to my ankles. Better to be a little too big than too small, as my mom liked to tell me growing up. I’m not growing anymore, but I get what she said. I then drive over to the pizzeria to start my shift.

It’s only for six hours, I think, and it’s only my first day. It can’t go bad at all. This was going to be pretty uneventful. I smile.

What’s the worst that can happen?

~ ~ ~

I can’t rush home fast enough after my shift ends. The sun’s just coming up, and none of my homework is done. I don’t care. I should’ve listened to my instincts. I never should’ve taken that job, I think.

It had started innocuously enough, though I thought the heavy-duty doors a bit excessive. A recorded message from the last guy who was night watchman here played on the phone’s answering machine as I started to get settled, sitting in the chair that was in the security office. It started normally enough, policy and all the legal stuff. Then he started mentioning the animatronics themselves. The more he talked, the more on edge I became.

Then he mentioned the bite of ’87. Not a bite I remembered, but clearly had happened after I swore off pizza and only a mere four years after what happened to the kid at the diner.

“Yeah, it’s amazing how a human can live without the frontal lobe,” the guy on the phone had said.

That set me at the edge of my seat. I didn’t even take the homework out of my backpack at this point. I couldn’t focus on it.

So much for a quiet night.

I turn my thoughts of the night off as I finally get to my dorm room, where I go up and take off the uniform before going to bed, falling into a fitful sleep plagued with nightmares.

Four more days. I just have to survive four more days. After that, I can quit and get a normal job as a cashier at a supermarket.

Four more days.

~ ~ ~

Each night gets harder and harder to get through, but by the fourth night, I’m able to start taking it in stride. I’m almost able to think that I’ll be able to survive long enough to enjoy another bar visit with my friends. Maybe that karaoke bar that Shawn talked about on Monday.

I’m listening to the recording on the phone as I keep an eye on the cameras, closing the door when I need to and keeping my eyes peeled. Suddenly, in the recording, the guy is panicking, and music starts playing. It’s creepy to hear, then I hear a blood-curdling scream – the likes of which I had only heard once before. My mind flashed suddenly to that day at the diner when the kid was killed by the bear.

I almost keep a third eye out for everything happening, one thought in my head the rest of the night: survive.

~ ~ ~

The last night comes, and this time, predictably, I don’t have a single message on the phone from the guy. I feel really bad, and I feel so much more alone now, more vulnerable to the animatronics in the halls that wanted to kill me. I keep thinking of the kid and saying to myself in my mind, _I will not become like him. I’ll survive one more night. After tonight, it’s over. I’ll quit, pick up my paycheck, and get a job as a cashier._

It’s harder to keep track of the power levels tonight as I try to hold the animatronics at bay, and it’s in the 5 o’clock hour when the power is finally drained completely. I freeze in terror, not knowing how close to 6 it is. A pair of eyes glow at me from my left side as the music from the phone guy’s final recording begins to play.

_So this is how I die_ , I think to myself. _Killed by a bear, just like that kid. But this time, it won’t be from a bunch of bullies. It’ll be while I’m on the job, no one around to hear me scream._

Suddenly, a loud noise rings through the entire establishment, one that always signaled the end of the night and connected the power to the rest of the grid, turning on all the lights and sealing my victory. It’s 6 AM.

I turn my head only slightly to see that the bear is inches away from my face, hands open and ready to grab me while the mouth was open, teeth and endoskeleton exposed and mere inches from my face. I jump back in fear but see that the bear is frozen in place for a moment, probably realizing that it’s now 6 AM. It pulls back, then walks back to the stage, where it belongs. I check the cameras one last time to see that everyone else is doing the same.

I clock out as I see the morning shifter come in, and I pick up my things and go up to him.

I must look like death, because he takes one look at me and asks, “What happened, man? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I look at him and say, “I have my resignation in the office. I’m going straight home, and I’ll be back with the uniform all washed in a few days. After that, I’m never coming back.”

With that, I leave immediately, and I can’t get home soon enough.

~ ~ ~

I am true to my word, and the boss understands. He actually chuckles and says that he didn’t expect a college kid to survive this long at the job. He thought I’d quit earlier, but I explain that I need the money and he gives me the paycheck. It’s only for $120, but it’s better than nothing. If anything, it’ll pay for my groceries if nothing else.

I’m never able to go near the pizzeria again, but I see a few months later that it closed down due to a bunch of disappearances of kids and night watchmen alike. I don’t question it. Bears still give me night terrors, and animatronic bears even more so. The sooner it’s gone, the better.

I can’t even eat pizza without tasting blood anymore, either.


End file.
